StoryBrand Marketing Agency
StoryBrand Your
Business Without
the Guesswork
We implement a StoryBrand-driven strategic marketing system that attracts, nurtures, and retains your ideal clients, so you can focus on what you love (which, let's face it, is probably not copywriting and marketing).
Clarify Your Message
Attract Only Ideal Customers
Focus on Your Business Growth
Struggling to implement StoryBrand?
Are you finding it challenging to create a clear, engaging StoryBrand BrandScript on your own?
Unsure how to effectively integrate StoryBrand into your marketing?
Overwhelmed with what steps to take after completing your BrandScript?
Frustrated with marketing efforts that don't resonate with your audience?
Struggling to focus on your actual business?
You have a great business, and you're excellent at what you do. But if you're caught up chasing the latest marketing tactics – from SEO to social media and more – you're losing time that could be invested in growing your business.
WHERE STORYBRAND MEETS STRATEGY
You deserve marketing that works
Experience the clarity and efficiency of a well-crafted marketing plan tailored to your business and powered by StoryBrand.
Transform your marketing with a StoryBranded message that cuts through the noise, ensuring your brand resonates with your target audience.
See tangible results as your business attracts and retains the right clients (seemingly on autopilot), leading to sustainable growth and success.
With a StoryBrand-powered plan in place, spend less time worrying about marketing and more time on what you love – growing your business, spending time with loved ones, and all that good stuff.
You deserve peace of mind
Grow your B2B business with our strategic marketing services.
Do you find the lead generation process frustrating and time-consuming?
Save valuable time and focus on serving your clients.
Gain the upper hand in your market.
Set up a strategic marketing system that attracts and nurtures your ideal clients.
Feel confident with a solid, strategic marketing plan.
Hi, I'm Vicky Sidler
A StoryBrand Certified Guide & Fellow Entrepreneur
And believe me, I GET IT! I understand the frustration of marketing that just doesn't seem to work. I know what it's like to feel lost in a sea of tactics and strategies. When I started my agency in 2020, I was just a small fish in a big pond, trying to stand out from whale-sized competitors. (I’m also a qualified scuba diver, in case you’re wondering about these metaphors…)
Since then, we developed a proven, data-driven marketing strategy (powered by StoryBrand) that has helped both us and countless clients get noticed, attract the right customers, grow their ideal client base, and make an impact with their marketing and their businesses.
We boast a proven track record of transforming marketing messages to resonate with target audiences.
As StoryBrand Certified Guides, we apply the renowned StoryBrand Framework to everything we do with impressive results!
And as a Duct Tape Certified Agency, we’ve gone through an extensive certification process to offer you a holistic, systematic approach to marketing – a system that truly works.
You don’t have to do this alone. Together, we'll take your marketing from confusing to crystal clear. Let's make your brand's message stand out and connect with the people who matter most to your business.
I used the StoryBrand ‘one-liner’ yesterday for the first time to create some awareness on my various social media platforms. I have never had so many likes and interest on one of my coaching ads before. I am booking some consultations as we speak. You guys are amazing!
Tracey Clark, Business Coach
StoryBrand Services We Provide
Clarify Your Message
From US$1,500
Let us help you refine and perfect your StoryBrand messaging. We'll work with you to fine-tune your StoryBrand BrandScript, ensuring it resonates with your target audience and aligns with your brand's identity.
We even interview your ideal customers to get their point of view and make sure you've nailed it!
Learn More About Our StoryBrand Framework Consultation
StoryBrand Sales Funnel
From US$5,000
Specializing in the creation of the Marketing Made Simple Sales Funnel, we develop effective landing pages, engaging lead generators, and persuasive email sequences - all within the StoryBrand framework.
Install the full StoryBrand system into your business.
Learn More About Our StoryBrand Sales Funnel Development
Strategic Marketing Engagement
From US$7,500
Our Strategy First Engagement is a deep dive into your current marketing, where we’ll identify your ideal clients, map out your customer journey, craft a customized marketing plan, nail your BrandScript, and more.
Make sure you're doing it right from the start!
Why Choose Us?
Strategy-First Approach
At the Strategic Marketing Tribe, we apply the StoryBrand framework as our cornerstone, ensuring that your marketing plan has a clear and coherent message that speaks directly to your customers’ needs and desires.
Consistent Lead Generation
Kiss those unpredictable and mismatched leads goodbye. Leveraging the StoryBrand principles, we help you craft messages that consistently attract the right clients, ensuring a reliable flow of high-quality inquiries.
Save Time and Effort
Let us handle the complexity of crafting and applying your StoryBrand BrandScript. With our StoryBrand-focused approach, we streamline your marketing efforts, enabling you to dedicate more time to what you're passionate about – growing your business.
Gain A Competitive Edge
Elevate your business with a marketing message shaped by StoryBrand, positioning your brand as the clear choice in your industry. Our strategic, story-driven method ensures your business stands out to your ideal clients, giving you a competitive advantage.
Amazing! I needed help clarifying my message for my website. The Strategic Marketing Tribe helped me do this using the StoryBrand Framework. I can even use the BrandScript we made for the rest of my marketing material.
Matthew Van Neel, Lance Mvn
[Free eBook] 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success
Submit your info to download a copy of our free Book, which will guide you through the seven steps to build an effective marketing system.
By submitting this form, you agree to our Terms of Service and to receive occasional emails from us. You can unsubscribe at any time.
How It Works
Here’s what you can expect when
partnering with us:
Book Your Free Consultation
Complete the form below and schedule a time that works for you. We’ll meet and talk about your business, goals, and current messaging.
StoryBrand Strategy Session
In our StoryBrand Strategy Session, we’ll dive deeper into your business to see what you’re doing now and where there are opportunities to integrate the StoryBrand framework effectively.
Start Applying StoryBrand
You get to keep all the ideas we come up with during this strategy session – absolutely no obligation.
Sign Up for Our Newsletter
Stay up-to-date on the latest strategic marketing insights.
By submitting this form, you agree to our Terms of Service and to receive occasional emails from us. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are our answers to the most frequently asked questions about marketing and lead generation.
What is StoryBrand?
StoryBrand is a marketing framework developed by Donald Miller that helps businesses clarify their message so it resonates with their target audience. It centres around creating a story for your brand where the customer is the hero, and your business is the guide that helps them overcome their challenges and achieve their goals.
How can StoryBrand help my business?
Implementing the StoryBrand framework can transform how you communicate with your customers. It simplifies your message, making it easier for customers to understand how your products or services can solve their problems. This clear communication helps increase engagement, conversions, and customer loyalty, ultimately driving growth for your business.
What does the process of creating a StoryBrand BrandScript involve?
Creating a StoryBrand BrandScript involves identifying key elements of your brand's story, such as defining your customer's problem, positioning your brand as the guide with a solution, and outlining a plan that leads the customer to success. This script serves as the foundation for all your marketing materials, ensuring a consistent and compelling message across all platforms.
How do I choose the right StoryBrand guide for my business?
Be sure to choose a StoryBrand guide who prioritizes strategy over tactics. A strategic-first approach ensures your marketing is built on a solid foundation, preventing wasted time and resources in the long run. Look for a guide focused on aligning your core message and goals before diving into marketing actions, ensuring your efforts attract the right leads and drive meaningful results.
Learn More about StoryBrand
and Strategic Marketing Insights
From the Strategic Marketing Tribe
Take a deep dive into the world of strategic marketing insights,
where you’ll find expertise to help your business thrive.
‘Am I Doing the Right Things?’ What Mailchimp’s Marketer Learned
By Vicky Sidler | Published 30 August 2025 at 12:00 GMT+2
If you’ve ever stared at your campaign metrics like they were a Sudoku puzzle written in Sanskrit, you’re not alone. According to Mark Lodwick, Director of Brand Experience at Intuit Mailchimp, the question that haunts marketers of all sizes is, “Am I doing the right things?”
Spoiler: doubt is normal. The problem is staying there.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Tim Healey of Little Grey Cells (published in The Drum), Lodwick gave small businesses a much-needed sigh of relief. Even at the billion-dollar brand level, marketing doesn’t come with a cheat sheet. But there are ways to quiet the panic, focus your energy, and get back to solving real customer problems.
TL;DR
Even big brands ask, “Are we doing this right?”
Mailchimp uses doubt to fuel clarity and customer focus
AI is powerful, but only when it solves real problems
Great marketing starts by solving one thing well
Simplicity beats shiny every time
Need help getting your message right? Download the 5-Minute Marketing Fix.
Table of Contents
‘Am I Doing the Right Things?’ What Mailchimp’s Marketer Learned
When Everyone Feels Like a Fraud (You're Not Broken):
Don’t Confuse Data With Direction:
Use AI to Clarify, Not Complicate:
The Real Job—Solve One Problem Well:
Build Teams That Talk to Each Other:
Not Everything Needs to Scale:
Not Every Idea Has to Be a Winner
Advertise Your Business on $500—Here's What Works
LLM Visibility: The SEO Shift You're Missing
AI Job Loss Panic? It's Just Clever Marketing
Work from Home Is Better For Business—Here's the Tech That Makes It Work
FAQs on Doing the “Right” Marketing Things
Why do so many marketers feel like they’re doing it wrong?
What did Mailchimp learn from their customers?
What should I do if I feel overwhelmed by AI tools?
When Everyone Feels Like a Fraud (You're Not Broken):
Lodwick’s research-backed insight is refreshingly human. Whether you're a solo operator or part of a global brand team, that gnawing feeling that you might be off-track is universal.
In Mailchimp’s customer research, marketers kept repeating the same line: “I don’t know if I’m doing the right things.” Not “I need more budget.” Not “I need a better CRM.” Just a quiet, persistent uncertainty.
It’s the kind of thing no one puts on a slide deck but everyone feels after a disappointing click-through rate.
The takeaway? Self-doubt isn’t a red flag. It’s a prompt to refocus.
“The work we admire most is often incredibly simple,” Lodwick says. “That simplicity is usually the result of distilling a complex problem into something clear and resonant.”
Translation: Marketing clarity isn’t about doing more. It’s about getting better at solving the right problem.
Don’t Confuse Data With Direction:
One of Mailchimp’s most memorable recent campaigns was called “The Clustomer.” Picture a big, tangled ball of customer data. Now picture yourself inside it with a flashlight and a deadline.
Marketers, it turns out, are drowning in information but starving for insight.
Lodwick’s team realised the real challenge wasn’t access to data—it was knowing what to do with it. That insight drove the campaign, which helped reposition Mailchimp not just as a tool, but as a problem-solver.
And that’s the lesson for small businesses too: having more data doesn’t help unless you have a plan to act on it. Simpler is often smarter.
Use AI to Clarify, Not Complicate:
Lodwick is realistic about AI. He’s not buying into the hype, but he’s not ignoring it either.
Yes, Mailchimp is using generative AI to help speed up content creation. But no, they’re not outsourcing judgment.
If the tech helps them organise data and communicate more clearly, great. If it just creates more noise, it’s out.
For small business owners: think of AI like a power drill. Helpful if you're building something. Pointless if you're still deciding what to build.
Here’s Lodwick’s rule of thumb: “Can it create work we’re proud of and confident putting out into the world?” If not, skip it.
The Real Job—Solve One Problem Well:
According to Lodwick, the best marketing advice is deceptively simple:
“Every customer has a problem, so the key question becomes: what can we do that uniquely solves it?”
Marketing isn’t about going viral or being clever. It’s about solving something real for someone specific.
And that’s exactly what most small businesses forget when they get stuck chasing competitors, trends, or the latest “must-have” platform.
Your job is not to impress other marketers. Your job is to help your customer make a decision they feel good about.
Build Teams That Talk to Each Other:
Even within Mailchimp, siloed work is a risk. Lodwick calls it out directly: “How aware is this group of what’s going on outside their own lane?”
To fix this, his team runs quarterly “forums” where anyone—whether in product, creative, or strategy—can share what they’re working on, even if it’s messy or half-baked.
Sometimes they even present personal passion projects unrelated to work.
It’s not a kumbaya session. It’s a deliberate strategy to build trust, spark cross-pollination, and stop people from hiding behind Slack and email.
If you're a small team, try doing this monthly. You don’t need a budget. You just need a chair and 30 minutes to talk like actual humans.
At Strategic Marketing Tribe, we do this every week over Zoom.
Not Everything Needs to Scale:
Lodwick points out that not every AI tool is worth keeping. Some will work. Some will flop. That’s fine.
Try, assess, discard. Don’t force it.
The lesson here is to treat marketing like a lab, not a factory. You don’t need to industrialise everything. You need to test enough to learn, then focus on what works.
That means:
Ignore the tech FOMO
Solve your customer’s real problem
Share ideas across the team
Simplify where possible
Stick with what’s clear and helpful
Still feel unsure sometimes? Good. That means you’re thinking.
Not Every Idea Has to Be a Winner
One of my favorite lines from our own weekly team check-in is this:
“We’re some crazy mofos who love experimenting with new shit, and we’re not afraid to admit when it was a kak idea.”
For the non-South Africans, "kak" means "shit"—and yes, we say it with love.
Because here’s the truth: if you’re not willing to test things that might fail, you’re not going to find the stuff that actually works. Lodwick gets this. His take on AI isn’t about hype or perfection. It’s about trying things, seeing what sticks, and being okay with the mess that comes with making progress.
The goal isn’t to get it right the first time. The goal is to learn faster than the next guy. That’s how real marketing clarity shows up—not from certainty, but from movement.
StoryBrand Meets Mailchimp:
As a StoryBrand Certified Guide, I’ve seen hundreds of small businesses tie themselves in knots trying to market everything to everyone. The fix? Get crystal clear on what problem you solve, for whom, and why it matters.
Mailchimp's Clustomer campaign is a great example of this. They didn’t just say “better segmentation.” They showed it. Visually. Memorably. Relatably.
That’s what good marketing does. It makes the customer feel seen. And more importantly, it makes them believe you can help.
If you want help simplifying your message and cutting through the noise, that’s what the 5-Minute Marketing Fix is for.
Related Articles
Advertise Your Business on $500—Here's What Works
If you’re asking, “Am I doing the right things?”, this post shows you how to test your marketing on a tiny budget. It echoes Lodwick’s advice: focus, experiment, and measure what matters.
LLM Visibility: The SEO Shift You're Missing
Just like Lodwick says AI should clarify, not complicate, this article explains how to win at AI-powered search by focusing on clear messaging and authority—not just keywords.
AI Job Loss Panic? It's Just Clever Marketing
This companion piece unpacks how fear-based marketing around AI causes unnecessary confusion. Lodwick’s practical AI take matches perfectly with this grounded, myth-busting read.
Work from Home Is Better For Business—Here's the Tech That Makes It Work
Mailchimp's focus on collaboration and anti-silo culture is mirrored here. It shows how the right tools (plus clear communication) build strong remote teams that actually talk to each other.
FAQs on Doing the “Right” Marketing Things
Why do so many marketers feel like they’re doing it wrong?
Because marketing is messy. The landscape changes weekly and everyone feels behind. Doubt isn’t failure—it’s a sign to refocus.
What did Mailchimp learn from their customers?
That nearly everyone—regardless of company size—is unsure how to segment audiences properly or apply customer data meaningfully.
What should I do if I feel overwhelmed by AI tools?
Pick one task. If AI can help do that faster or better, use it. If it adds confusion or clutter, don’t.
What does “solving the right problem” mean?
It means identifying your customer’s actual pain point and showing how your product or service helps with that. Not everything. Just that.
How can I simplify my message?
Use the5-Minute Marketing Fix. It’s free, fast, and helps you clarify what to say and how to say it.
Become the Next StoryBrand Success Story
In the world of business, feeling overwhelmed by marketing strategies that don't deliver can be disheartening.
At the Strategic Marketing Tribe, we understand that you might be unsure on how to effectively apply the StoryBrand framework and perhaps hesitant about investing in yet another marketing solution.
Our approach is designed to alleviate these concerns:
We offer a completely free strategy session that’s designed to help you with some great ideas for marketing your business. These ideas are 100% yours to keep – and there is no sales pitch to endure (not even a secret one).
What’s the catch? Well, if you’d like help with finalizing your StoryBrand Framework or implementing any of the tactics we discuss, we hope that you’ll consider us.
Best of all? If you’re not completely blown away by the work we do for you, we’ll give you a full refund. Sure, it’s a massive risk for us because we can’t undo the delivery once it’s been made, but we are so confident in the value our service provides that a guarantee is a no-brainer.
With our expert guidance, you can shift your focus from marketing worries to what you do best – growing your business, spending time with those you love, and enjoying the success that comes with clear, effective strategy.
Ready to take the guesswork out of your StoryBrand marketing?
Let’s get started
Ready to take the guesswork out of your marketing efforts? At Strategic Marketing Tribe, we create a tailored marketing strategy for your business that attracts, nurtures, and engages not just any lead, but your ideal customers.
Services
Resources
About Us
Contact Us
© 2023 Strategic Marketing Tribe. All Rights Reserved.